Montserrat Figueras 1942 - 2011
short biography

Montserrat Figueras - soprano - was born in Barcelona,
where she studied singing and acting. At a very early age, Montserrat Figueras gave her first concert with the Catalan Early Music ensemble, ARS
MUSICAE. In 1968 she left for Basle and studied early and modern
music at the Schola
Cantorum Baseliensis and the Conservatoire. She worked under
Kurt Widmer, Thomas Binkley and later with Eva Krasznai. Six
years later, Jordi Savall (her husband since 1968), Montserrat
Figueras, Lorenzo Alpert and Hopkinson Smith founded the ensemble
HESPERION XX. In 1987 Jordi Savall founded the vocal and
instrumental ensemble LA CAPELLA REIAL of which Montserrat is a
member. Montserrat Figueras has developed a most personal
conception of the interpretation of early vocal music, especially
from Spain and Catalonia.

Montserrat Figueras received several awards:
Edison Klassiek , Grand Prix of the Nouvelle Académie du Disque and Grande Prix
of the Académie Charles Cross, to mention a few.

"About her
performance: The effect is tremendous. Figueras' sense of time is
elastic; she floats above and around the beat, giving priority to
the rhythm of the words she sings but never without reference to
the drum's meter. Memelsdorff answers her in improvised
counterpoint, Lester Young to her Billie Holiday. Estevan holds
his ground, and the slow and stiff meter he marks only seems to
provoke Figueras and Memelsdorff to ever more freely stretch and
contact their phrases. When the drum finally stops, and the last
notes of the song die away, there is a moment of stunned silence
before the church bursts into applause."

"Every so often, an artist
brings out a recorded program of such exquisite taste and beauty that it
becomes an instant legend. Such was Montserrat Figueras's Cant de la
Sibylla discs (...) Add Ninna Nanna to the list (...) This disc makes a
charming gift, one for yourself and one for someone you love."